Regret
by Shuriken1600
Summary: Injured after an unwanted run-in with the Autobots, Megatron finds himself at Optimus' mercy and realizes how much he misses his brother and how blinded he was by the Fallen.  Rating will go up. Mostly a character study.
1. Powerless

Ch. 1 Countdown

**WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS CRITICAL. STASIS LOCK RECOMMENDED. PROCEED Y/N? **

**N. STASIS LOCK OVERRIDDEN. CURRENT ENERGON LEVEL: 10%. REFUEL IMMEDIATELY. **

**WARNING: FRACTURES DETECTED IN MAIN SUPPORT STRUCTURE. LOCATION: STARBOARD HIP. MEDICAL ATTENTION REQUIRED. CONTINUED USE OF LIMB IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS. RECOMMEND CEASE ALL FURTHER MOVEMENT UNTIL INJURY IS STABLE. LOCK LIMB NOW Y/N?**

**N. LOCKDOWN OVERRIDDEN. SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY.**

Megatron made his way aimlessly across the great expanse of sand known as the Sahara desert to the local insects, limping badly. His latest run-in with the accursed Autobots had left him stranded and in a very bad way, with a fractured hip and too little energon to fly, so he was forced to walk. Slowly and painfully.

**WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS CRITICAL. STASIS LOCK RECOMMENDED. PROCEED Y/N? **

He sighed as the prompt blinked back up in his processor and refused it once again.

**N. STASIS LOCK OVERRIDDEN. CURRENT ENERGON LEVEL: 7%. REFUEL IMMEDIATELY. **

The Decepticon Lord growled in frustration as he tried to open his communication relays, only to discover that they had been taken offline during the battle. He stumbled as the sand slipped under him, and nearly fell when he put too much weight on his bad leg. He halted, hissing in annoyance and pain, and noticed that his energon reserves were down to six percent. If they went much lower he would be forced into involuntary stasis, a condition that he certainly did not wish to be in while in plain sight in the middle of a Primus-forsaken Earth desert.

Megatron staggered as his orientation chips failed momentarily, causing him to briefly lose his sense of direction, before coming back online. He was down to five percent now and logic screamed at him to rest, but he continued stubbornly onward, limping without destination purely for the sake of movement.

His reserves hit four percent, and static washed through his vision while the orientation chips went offline permanently, the world spun in a nauseating swirl of white sand and blue sky and he went down hard, twisting to avoid landing on his already throbbing hip and worsening the injury. The ground rose up to meet him and he cried out in agony when he hit hard on his back, jarring the fracture, and curled in the sand on his good side to wait out the burning waves.

Three percent, and the cogs in his fuel tanks ground together with no energon to work with, adding a new pain for the tormented mech to focus on. He squeezed his optics shut hard in a futile attempt to lessen the dizziness caused by more than just the failure of orientation chips, and gagged helplessly as there was nothing in his tanks to void. The nausea finally abated enough for him to fully collapse on the alien sand, still warm from the radiation of the nearby star, and resign himself to the imminent stasis lock his processor was so avidly reminding him of, his entire frame trembling in exhaustion and agony.

"Megatron?"

The mech to whom belonged the inquired name dimly registered the call and believed it to be an imagined sound, one created by his failing processor in a last feeble attempt to stave off the inevitable. It came again, more insistent now,

"Megatron!"

Two percent.

He was shaken, quite literally, back to full consciousness and his optics snapped open but wouldn't focus beyond the bloody light of the setting star. Megatron could only moan in protest as the harsh movement sent too familiar rays of pain radiating through his body. The shaking mercifully ended but he found his reprieve to be short-lived as the shaker instead rolled him over onto his back again, drawing a sharp cry from his vocalizer when the broken hip joint was moved. The decepticon felt the tingle of a scanner before another pain, a nearly imperceptible sting, registered in his neck, and suddenly strength flowed into him as his energon levels began to slowly rise. He sighed in relief as his processor came fully back online, orientation chips included, and his optics finally focused… on the smaller, red and blue form of his brother.

"…Optimus?" he inquired weakly. The Autobot commander nodded and reached out to lay a servo on his chest.

"Lay still," the smaller mech advised and, seeing Megatron's obvious confusion, added "I followed you after the battle…Why were you alone?"

"…Wasn't looking for a fight." Megatron managed, "Your Autobots attacked me, not the other way around." Optimus seemed to accept his non-answer for the time being, and disconnected the tube from Megatron's primary energon line. Megatron noted with relief that his reserves were back up to an acceptable thirty-four percent.

"Can you walk?" Optimus asked.

"Can try…" he muttered, and to push himself halfway into a sitting position before the pain forced him back down. Optimus caught him before he hit the sand again and slid one arm behind his shoulders and the other under his knee joints.

"Just try to relax…don't tense up…" Prime advised before lifting him as gently as was possible, but not gently enough. The change in position cracked his hip open a little more and Megatron howled as his vision went white with agony, energon welled around his claws where they dug into his brother's back and arm, and the last thing he heard was Optimus murmuring to him softly before the blessed darkness rose up and sucked him under its warm waves.


	2. Incomplete

Megatron came back online to find Optimus' warm frame curled around his back, and a strange absence of the sharp pain he had endured for the majority of the last planetary rotation. Rather he now felt a dull ache throughout his body, one easily ignored and much preferable to the agony of his fractured hip. His hip? Megatron's optics snapped open and he craned his head to see what had been a substantial crack in his main starboard hip support had been welded shut while he had been offline. He stretched his leg tentatively, and then with greater relish when he felt no immobilizing pain.

Optimus stirred against his back, roused by his movements, and wrapped an arm around his waist to pull himself into a sitting position, "Feeling better?" he asked.

Megatron nodded and rose to sit next to his brother, who leaned in to press their lip-plates together briefly before pulling back, seemingly unsure of Megatron's reaction, then kissing him again when no resistance was offered before breaking away and nuzzling his neck warmly. Megatron chuckled low in his throat and wrapped his arms around Optimus, surprised by the sudden affection. "Well, you're being nicer than usual Prime." He teased.

"I could say the same about you." Optimus teased right back before becoming serious again, " Besides," he admitted, "I miss you brother…" He snuggled closer against Megatron's sturdy frame, a low purr rumbling in his chest.

Megatron was surprised by Optimus' statement, and found he felt much the same. He missed his brother as well, every klik of every cycle there was a deep ache in his spark, one that had not been soothed by time or action or desire. No matter what he did or denied to himself over and over again about his younger brother, the fact remained: he missed him, missed _them_. Missed having someone to go to for comfort and simple companionship after a hard cycle dealing with the never-ending political duties that came with ruling over their empire. But he had lost all of that an day the excavation team uncovered the artifact that housed the consciousness of the Fallen. No one had known that of course, but from the moment his optics rested upon the strange symbol carved into its surface, the symbol of the ancient Decepticons, he had been enraptured by the timeless presence within.

The Fallen had entangled him within a web of lies and false promises of unity and power, and he hadn't known he was ensnared until it was far too late…and thus he watched his homeworld die, his species die, his own brother grow fearful and resentful of him, and in a panicked attempt to protect what was left of their world from him, Optimus had shot the Allspark, the only chance Cybertron had left, far into the uncharted reaches of deep space. To protect Cybertron from its own Lord High Protector.

But now the Fallen was gone, and Megatron was free from him and all his promises of power and the unity of their species, free from his lies, and free from the strings the Fallen maneuvered him with like a child's puppet. But at the same time he was not free, was still enslaved by the war he had started with the intentions of bringing about the new Golden Age for Cybertron and her people that he had been entranced with the images of, beautiful images of prosperity and long awaited advancement as a species. But he had been blinded by those images, the same way an Earth horse is blinded during a race, only able to see the finish line ahead of him but never the chaos to either side. Now he was trapped in the middle of the war he had created among the very people he had sworn to protect, with no conceivable way out.

He sighed angrily and rested his jaw on the top of his brother's helm. Optimus pulled back to kiss him again and he reciprocated hungrily, needing the intimate contact, needing to be reminded of the bond he and Optimus shared. His younger brother moaned and twined their glossa together, fighting for dominance. Megatron gave it to him, he had no strength or desire to dominate Optimus, not now. Now he just wanted to lose himself in the experience, to give up the power and control, and to let someone else make all the decisions. He needed that of Optimus, needed his brother to fill the ragged hole he had torn in his own spark.


End file.
